Tag on elephants

New Delhi, Jan. 8 (PTI): The environment ministry has decided to electronically tag elephants in high-traffic areas to allow forest officials to keep track of their movements and prevent accidents.

Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan has announced a slew of measures, including appointment of forest officials at railway control rooms, to protect the animal from “grave danger”. A list of well-known vulnerable patches for wildlife has been put out.

The decisions were taken at a meeting of officials from the railway and the environment ministry.

Last week, six elephants were mowed down when a train ploughed into a herd in Odisha.

Often the time lag between spotting an elephant and the information reaching a train driver is too little to enable effective action.